Day to Day
A embassy van would pick us up and we would be dropped at the various locations for teaching, choreographing, lecturing, observing. We went to universities, grade schools, the School for the hearing impaired, three different dance groups' studios and a place called The American Corner where young adults gather to learn and practice English. These organizations were all chosen by the embassy and we were welcomed everywhere.
I mostly took photos and videos but Sarah and I talked at the American Corner one afternoon. This was not a dance audience and I got the feeling they were not necessarily interested in Dana's group but they did seem interested in how we felt about Mongolian folk dancing, contortionists," Dancing with the Stars" type programs and Lady GaGa. Mostly I think we provided real English speaking people to talk and listen to.
In the evenings we went to the hotel bar and worked on the Chronicle for Higher Education blog. Dana wrote, I made editorial suggestions and then we went through photos that fit with the text and/or were interesting. We then emailed everything and in the morning at breakfast we were able to see the final blog entries at the Chronicle site.
We usually drank Chinggis beer at the bar and one
night we sampled the local wheat beer.
On Thursday early
evening we were finally able to do a bit of
shopping. We went to the huge State Department
store which sounds like it kept its name from
Soviet times. The souvenirs were on the 8th floor
so we spent time there. I also ventured down to
the cashmere floor to find a sweater for my aunt
Zita and was successful. (Cashmere is an
important Mongolian export) We were some of the
last people in the store.
Friday (last full day in Ulaanbaatar) was spent
at the theater preparing for the evening
performance. The uneven wood plank floor delayed
warmup and rehearsal. The 4 dancers and I walked
around a bit and ate at the Grand Khan Irish Pub
which was pretty good. The floor was eventually
covered with felt and the a marley (vinyl) dance
floor. The dancers said that dancing on it was
other-worldly but they did fine.
The performance was by embassy invitation only
(not sure why) and was about 3/4 filled. US
Ambassador Addleton (who grew up in Macon, GA)
and his wife attended and stuck around for the
little reception afterwards. We took a group
picture of embassy staff and translators, Tumen
Ek dancers and other guests before heading back
to the hotel to eat and blog at the bar.